Instead of grilling him about his campaign or xenophobic stances, Fallon decided to rub Trump's head and ruffle his hair. It didn't go over well.

The late-night host, who never spoke about the interview in the months following, has finally decided to share his side of the story. In a New York Times profile published Wednesday morning, Fallon admits that he should have addressed the criticism following Trump's appearance right away, but he just wanted to keep a low profile.

"I didn't talk about it, and I should have talked about it," he told the Times. "I regret that."

Fallon said the hate online was deafening, and that it affected him much more than people thought.

"I didn't do it to humanize him," Fallon said of the Trump moment. "I almost did it to minimize him. I didn't think that would be a compliment: 'He did the thing that we all wanted to do.'"

"I'm a people pleaser," he added, later in the piece. "If there's one bad thing on Twitter about me, it will make me upset. So, after this happened, I was devastated. I didn't mean anything by it. I was just trying to have fun."

Fun is Fallon's game. He's never been the political type, nor is that where his strengths lie. His goal, says the 42-year-old, is to entertain, and he tries to do that in the best way he knows how: with "SNL"-like bits, sketches and celebrity drinking games.

"Jimmy is not a political comedian, so it would be very phony of him to go out and do long political joke rants just because that's what some people want," Tina Fey told the Times of her former colleague. "'The Tonight Show' has historically been a friendly, light show."

I didn't mean anything by it. I was just trying to have fun. Jimmy Fallon on that Trump interview

Fallon said he feels like his Trump controversy has "sailed," and that maybe he missed the boat on making an impact on his viewers' takes on it. But, ultimately, he will continue to do the show he's always been producing.

"I tossed and turned for a couple of weeks, but I have to make people laugh," he said. "People that voted for Trump watch my show as well."